Video showing unmasked students entering MHS goes viral, drawing national attention
A video taken last Tuesday morning of students not wearing masks entering Manchester High School went viral and made state and national news last week. Top left and bottom: articles appeared in the Detroit Free Press and NBC News. Top right: screenshot of one re-posting of the video that received 1.5 million views
Last Tuesday morning, Manchester Community Schools students and staff returned after the four-day Labor Day weekend with new rules in place after Washtenaw County instituted a county-wide indoor mask mandate for K-12 schools. Before school began for the day, families opposed to masking held a protest in front of the High School as they had on the previous Wednesday and Thursday. But afterwards, things escalated, and because a video was recorded by a parent and protest organizer and it was posted to social media, Manchester made state and national news.
After school started for the day, the unmasked students who had participated in the protest tried to enter the building but were met at the door by superintendent Dr. Brad Bezeau and newly-hired principal Andy Rousello and told that they couldn’t enter without a mask. As shown in the video that has since gone viral, parents began shouting at the students to enter the building and that the school officials couldn’t touch them. Eventually, as students pressed against the doors, Dr. Bezeau stepped aside to de-fuse the situation and they entered. The video shows students laughing and clapping on their way in to the building as the parents who had just been urging them on yell, “Be kind and respectful.”
A Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) deputy was present but didn’t intervene.
The students that entered the building were first held in the office, along with other unmasked students who didn’t participate in the protest but had entered at the regular time. Although some students called home and were picked up, most were moved to the media center, where they spent the school day isolated from the rest of the student population.
Tuesday evening, Dr. Bezeau sent a letter to families in response to what had taken place. In it he states, “We as a school district will comply with all orders and mandates from the Washtenaw County Health Department. These orders, authorized under the Michigan Public Health Code, will be followed by the school district in all cases. Know that these are lawful orders …” [the letter then cites the parts of the Michigan Public Health Code and State Administrative Rules that make make these orders lawful].
The letter went on to state that students not wearing masks would be subject to Student Code of Conduct violations and accompanying penalties. And while punishing students isn’t the goal, the letter explains that the district would be subject to many civil and monetary penalties if the students are in the building unmasked.
Dr. Bezeau reflected over the weekend on the what happened last week. He stated, "We had three good days of school after the unfortunate events of September 7th. We all learned a lot that day, and as usual, we also came together throughout the remainder of the week to have school, regardless of the issues or differences. That's the Manchester way, and one that was great to see as we continue to strive to give all of our students the opportunities and activities that they deserve."
While most students returned to school masked on Wednesday, and there have been no before-school protests, the video began to make its way around the internet.
Initially the story was picked up by Michigan news outlets including Detroit Free Press, MLive, Fox47news, WXYZ Channel 7, and WDIV Channel 4. After it was shared on twitter by a user with more than 200,000 followers, it was picked up by national news outlets including USA Today, Newsweek, Business Insider, and NBC News.
Most of the public comments, both positive and negative, on this widespread coverage centered around the students and parents seen and heard in the video, but some comments were directed at the WCSO deputy for not intervening. This stemmed from the apparent misunderstanding of the role the department was playing at the high school on Tuesday. On Friday, WCSO issued a statement detailing what to expect from the department in regards to the county’s public health emergency orders. It states, “Our primary focus is to keep the peace, help keep people calm, to de-escalate situations, to explain, and to advise. In the event a person becomes disorderly or assaultive or refuses to leave once given an adequate opportunity to do so, enforcement of criminal law may be required.”
The WCSO statement goes on to explain that if penalties are issued, they will be from the Health Department as violations are reported by the school district. The Washtenaw County Health Department has stated multiple times that the fines are a last result and the goal is just to get everyone masked and back to learning.
This swastika was drawn outside the high school building entrance used by most teachers
Even though many teachers were opposed to returning to a mask mandate themselves, they are bearing the burden of telling non-complying students to wear their masks correctly. Since Tuesday morning’s incident, the parent who filmed and posted the original viral video, live-streamed a video comparing the teachers to the Gestapo and encouraged students to write “My teacher is a Nazi” on their masks. The same morning, teachers found a swastika drawn outside the high school entrance they use.
A Manchester High School teacher stated, "It’s disheartening to see that adults in the community are encouraging students to be disrespectful, unkind and defiant to teachers. It's sad to see that this level of hate exists in this community. Hopefully disciplinary action will be instituted when they find out who perpetrated this hate crime."
We reached out to school board president, Ryan Novess, who speaking only for himself and not on behalf of the school board, stated, “I have come to realize that ultimately everyone wants to get to a place where they are not asked to wear masks, and this is regardless of how you feel about wearing one. Where the disagreements occur is how do we get to that point? My hope is we can all come together, regardless of those differences, to support the school district and do our best to ensure our educators and students have a successful school year.”
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